Tornado threat passes Kansas City

Threatened by the approach of 60 mile per hour winds, driving rain and hail that, at times, reached the size of golf balls, the Kansas City area on Sunday remained on a tornado watch that lasted from mid afternoon and into the night.

Threatened by the approach of 60 mile per hour winds, driving rain and hail that, at times, reached the size of golf balls, the Kansas City area on Sunday remained on a tornado watch for much of the afternoon and night.

But by 10 p.m. Sunday, the watch had expired and storms had moved north and east of Kansas City. The metropolitan area seemed well on its way to being spared the worst aspects of a storm that blew heavy limbs from trees and, in small pockets, dropped as much as an inch of rain in as little as 10 minutes.

No storms are predicted for Monday, which forecasters said is expected to be partly coudly with temperatures in the high 60s.

No major flooding was reported Sunday in the Kansas City area and Kansas City Power & Light reported scant power outages, affecting about 75 of its customers in the Kansas City area.

In Lafayette County, Mo., however, a severe thunderstorm capable of producing a tornado moved through Odessa. Mo., about 1:15 p.m.

Its thrashing winds ripped shingles from roofs, spurred multiple accident and caused a semi tractor trailer to flip from Interstate 70. Earlier Sunday, a semi also drove off Interstate 435 into Shoal Creek near Missouri 152 in Kansas City, North.

Later, some 85 miles south of Kansas City, a tornado touched down at about 5:50 p.m. between Hume, Mo., and Prescott, Kan.

The National Weather Service also reported dangerous golf ball-size hail, 60 mph winds and a chance of flash floods in an area of west central Missouri that included Garden City, Harrisonville, Pleasant Hill, Lake Lotawana, Warrensburg and Lake Winnebago.

To the west, much of Kansas was under a severe thunderstorm watch until midnight. The weather service’s Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla., forecast severe storms, hail and tornadoes across much of Kansas, Oklahoma and Arkansas.